2002 FIFA World Cup qualification

2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
Tournament details
Teams	199 (from 6 confederations)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	777
Goals scored	2452 (3.16 per match)

A total of 199 teams entered the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds, competing for a total of 32 spots in the final tournament. South Korea and Japan, as the co-hosts, and France, as the defending champions, qualified automatically, leaving 29 spots open for competition.

Spots distribution

The 32 spots available in the 2002 World Cup would be distributed among the continental zones as follows:

Europe (UEFA): 14.5 places, 1 of them went to automatic qualifier France, while the other 13.5 places were contested by 50 teams. The winner of the 0.5 place would advance to the intercontinental play-offs (against a team from AFC)
South America (CONMEBOL): 4.5 places, contested by 10 teams. The winner of the 0.5 place would advance to the intercontinental play-offs (against a team from OFC).
North, Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF): 3 places, contested by 35 teams.
Africa (CAF): 5 places, contested by 51 teams.
Asia (AFC): 4.5 places, 2 of them went to automatic qualifiers South Korea and Japan, while the other 2.5 places were contested by 40 teams. The winner of the 0.5 place would advance to the intercontinental play-offs (against a team from UEFA).
Oceania (OFC): 0.5 place, contested by 10 teams. The winner of the 0.5 place would advance to the intercontinental play-offs (against a team from CONMEBOL).

A total of 193 teams played at least one qualifying match. A total of 777 qualifying matches were played, and 2452 goals were scored (an average of 3.17 per match).

Continental zones

To see the dates and results of the qualification rounds for each continental zone, click on the following articles:

Europe (UEFA)

Group 1 – Russia qualified. Slovenia advanced to the UEFA play-offs.

Group 2 – Portugal qualified. Republic of Ireland advanced to the UEFA–AFC intercontinental play-off

Group 3 – Denmark qualified. Czech Republic advanced to the UEFA play-offs.

Group 4 – Sweden qualified. Turkey advanced to the UEFA play-offs.

Group 5 – Poland qualified. Ukraine advanced to the UEFA play-offs.

Group 6 – Croatia qualified. Belgium advanced to the UEFA play-offs.

Group 7 – Spain qualified. Austria advanced to the UEFA play-offs.

Group 8 – Italy qualified. Romania advanced to the UEFA play-offs.

Group 9 – England qualified. Germany advanced to the UEFA play-offs.

Play-offs – Belgium, Germany, Slovenia and Turkey qualified over Czech Republic, Ukraine, Romania, and Austria respectively.

South America (CONMEBOL)

Argentina, Ecuador, Brazil and Paraguay qualified. Uruguay advanced to the CONMEBOL–OFC intercontinental play-off.

North, Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF)

Costa Rica, Mexico and USA qualified.

Africa (CAF)

Group A – Cameroon qualified.

Group B – Nigeria qualified.

Group C – Senegal qualified.

Group D – Tunisia qualified.

Group E – South Africa qualified.

Asia (AFC)

Group A – Saudi Arabia qualified. Iran advanced to the AFC play-off.

Group B – China PR qualified. United Arab Emirates advanced to the AFC play-off.

Play-off – Iran advanced to the UEFA–AFC intercontinental play-off over United Arab Emirates.

Oceania (OFC)

Australia advanced to the CONMEBOL–OFC intercontinental play-off.

Intercontinental play-offs

The teams would play against each other on a home-and-away basis. The winner would qualify.

UEFA–AFC intercontinental play-off

Republic of Ireland v Iran

2001-11-10
18:00 UTC±0

Republic of Ireland	2–0	Iran
Harte 44' (pen.) Keane 50'	(Report)

Lansdowne Road, Dublin
Attendance: 36,538
Referee: Antonio Pereira da Silva (Brazil)

Iran v Republic of Ireland

2001-11-15
17:30 UTC+3:30

Iran	1–0	Republic of Ireland
Golmohammadi 90'	(Report)

Azadi Stadium, Tehran
Attendance: 100,000
Referee: William Mattus Vega (Costa Rica)

Republic of Ireland qualified by the aggregate score of 2–1.

CONMEBOL–OFC intercontinental play-off

Australia v Uruguay

2001-11-20
20:15 UTC+11

Australia	1–0	Uruguay
Muscat 78' (pen.)	(Report)

Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne
Attendance: 84,656
Referee: Cesari (Italy)

Uruguay v Australia

2001-11-25
16:00 UTC−3

Uruguay	3–0	Australia
Silva 14' Morales 70', 90'	(Report)

Estadio Centenario, Montevideo
Attendance: 62,000
Referee: Bujsaim (UAE)

Uruguay qualified by the aggregate score of 3–1.

Qualified teams

The following 32 teams qualified for the 2002 FIFA World Cup:

Final qualification status

Country qualified for World Cup

Country failed to qualify

Country did not enter World Cup

Country not a FIFA member

Team	Qualified as	Qualification date	Appearance in finals	Consecutive Streak	Previous best performance
Japan (h)	*Host !Host	0031 May 1996	2 !2nd	011998 !2	15 !Group Stage (1998)
South Korea (h)	*Host !Host	0031 May 1996	6 !6th	011986 !5	14 !Group Stage (1954, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998)
France (c)	*Defending Champions !Defending Champions	0012 July 1998	11 !11th	011998 !2	14 !Winners (1998)
Cameroon	CAF Final Round Group A Winners	1 July 2001	5th	4	Quarter Finals (1990)
South Africa	CAF Final Round Group E Winners	1 July 2001	2nd	2	Group Stage (1998)
Tunisia	CAF Final Round Group D Winners	15 July 2001	3rd	2	Group Stage (1978, 1998)
Senegal	CAF Final Round Group C Winners	21 July 2001	1st	1
Nigeria	CAF Final Round Group B Winners	29 July 2001	3rd	3	Round of 16 (1994, 1998)
Argentina	CONMEBOL Winners	15 August 2001	13th	8	Winners (1978, 1986)
Poland	UEFA Group 5 Winners	1 September 2001	6th	1	Third Place (1974, 1982)
Sweden	UEFA Group 4 Winners	5 September 2001	10th	1	Runners-Up (1958)
Spain	UEFA Group 7 Winners	5 September 2001	11th	7	Fourth Place (1950)
Costa Rica	CONCACAF Final Round Winners	5 September 2001	2nd	1	Round of 16 (1990)
Russia	UEFA Group 1 Winners	156 October 2001	9 !9th^{[nb 1]}	011994 !1	Fourth place (1966)^{[nb 2]}
Portugal	UEFA Group 2 Winners	6 October 2001	3 !3rd	012002 !1	14 !Third Place (1966)
Denmark	UEFA Group 3 Winners	6 October 2001	3rd	2	14 !Quarter Finals (1998)
Croatia	UEFA Group 6 Winners	6 October 2001	2nd	2	Third Place (1998)
Italy	UEFA Group 8 Winners	6 October 2001	15th	11	Winners (1934, 1938, 1982)
England	UEFA Group 9 Winners	6 October 2001	11th	2	Winners (1966)
China PR	AFC Second Round Group B Winners	7 October 2001	1st	1
United States	CONCACAF Final Round Runners-Up	7 October 2001	7th	4	Third Place (1930)
Saudi Arabia	AFC Second Round Group A Winners	21 October 2001	3rd	3	Round of 16 (1994)
Paraguay	CONMEBOL Fourth Place	8 November 2001	6th	2	Round of 16 (1986, 1998)
Mexico	CONCACAF Final Round Third Place	11 November 2001	12th	3	Quarter Finals (1970, 1986)
Belgium	UEFA Play-off Winners	14 November 2001	11th	6	Fourth Place (1986)
Germany	UEFA Play-off Winners	14 November 2001	15th	12	Winners (1954, 1974, 1990)
Slovenia	UEFA Play-off Winners	14 November 2001	1st	1
Turkey	UEFA Play-off Winners	14 November 2001	2nd	1	Group Stage (1954)
Ecuador	CONMEBOL Runners-Up	14 November 2001	1st	1
Brazil	CONMEBOL Third Place	14 November 2001	17th	17	Winners (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994)
Republic of Ireland	UEFA v AFC play-off Winners	15 November 2001	3rd	1	Quarter Finals (1990)
Uruguay	CONMEBOL v OFC play-off Winners	25 November 2001	10th	1	Winners (1930, 1950)

(h) – qualified automatically as co-hosts

¹Includes 10 appearances by DFB representing West Germany between 1954 and 1990. Excludes 1 appearance by DVF representing East Germany between 1954 and 1990.

²Excludes appearances by USSR. If those are counted together, this is their 9th appearance.

Notes

On their way to the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Brazil endured their worst qualifying campaign ever, losing 6 matches (the only time so far they lost more than 2 games in a qualifying campaign) and finishing 3rd of the South American qualifying group (the only time so far they have not emerged as leaders of their qualifying group). However, Brazil went on to win the 2002 World Cup with a record-breaking tally of 7 wins in 7 matches in the final competition, without facing extra time or penalty shoot-outs. The following teams also won all their final competition matches: Uruguay in 1930 (4 games), Italy in 1938 (4 games, among which 1 game won after extra time), Brazil in 1970 (6 games) and France in 1998 (7 games,among which one game was won in added extra time by a golden goal and one game was won on penalties). In 1970, Brazil had also won all of their 6 preliminary competition matches. Uruguay did not play any preliminary round for 1930, as there was none, and Italy did not either for 1938 as they were automatically qualified for the World Cup as title holders.
Germany lost a World Cup qualifying match for the second time only on 1 September 2001, when they were defeated 1–5 by England in Munich. They had played 62 World Cup qualifying matches before (47 wins, 14 draws, 1 loss). Apart from Germany, no team having played more than 20 World Cup qualifying matches have lost less than 3 of them. Oddly, their first loss ever in a World Cup qualifier also took place while playing home, in Stuttgart, against Portugal in 1985.
Australia netted 31 goals against newcomers American Samoa, setting the record of the highest-scoring match and biggest margin of victory in an international match ever. This was only two days after Australia thrashed Tonga 22–0, a then international record. Also, Archie Thompson's 13 goals in the match against American Samoa surpassed the previous record of 10.
Souleymane Mamam of Togo became the youngest player ever to play in a World Cup qualifying match at the age of 13 years and 310 days in the match against Zambia, in Lomé, in May 2001. He subbed in for Komlan Assignon, three minutes from full-time.
The fastest-ever hat-trick in an "A" international was set when Abdul Hamid Bassiouny of Egypt needed only 177 seconds to bag his three goals in a game against Namibia.
Switzerland's Kubilay Türkyilmaz scored a hat trick exclusively from penalties against the Faroe Islands. Brazil's Ronaldo equaled this against Argentina in his team's 3–1 win in the 2006 World Cup qualifying round.
This was the first and, to date, only time that Germany qualified for a FIFA World Cup after playing qualifying play-offs.

Notes

↑ This is the 3rd appearance of Russia at the FIFA World Cup. However FIFA considers Russia as the successor team of the USSR.
↑ Russia's best result is group stage in 1994. However FIFA considers Russia as the successor team of the USSR.

External links

2002 FIFA World Cup qualifiers

AFC	First Round Second Round Play-off

CAF	First Round Second Round

CONCACAF	Caribbean Zone Central American Zone Play-offs Semi-finals Final round

CONMEBOL	Group Round

OFC	First Round Final Round

UEFA	Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Group 5 Group 6 Group 7 Group 8 Group 9 Play-offs

Play-offs	CONMEBOL v OFC UEFA v AFC

FIFA World Cup

Tournaments	Uruguay 1930 Italy 1934 France 1938 Brazil 1950 Switzerland 1954 Sweden 1958 Chile 1962 England 1966 Mexico 1970 West Germany 1974 Argentina 1978 Spain 1982 Mexico 1986 Italy 1990 United States 1994 France 1998 South Korea/Japan 2002 Germany 2006 South Africa 2010 Brazil 2014 Russia 2018 Qatar 2022 2026

Qualification	1930 1934 1938 1950 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018

Finals	1930 1934 1938 1950 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014

Squads	1930 1934 1938 1950 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014

Seedings	1998 2002 2006 2010 2014

Broadcasters	1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018

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Records and statistics	All-time table Goalscorers top goalscorers finals goalscorers hat-tricks own goals Penalty shoot-outs Player appearances Red cards Referees Team appearances Teams with no appearances

Miscellaneous	Awards Balls Economics Final draw History Hosts Mascots Official films Official songs Organisers Trophy Video games

Notes: There was no qualification for the 1930 World Cup as places were given by invitation only. In 1950, there was no final; the article is about the decisive match of the final group stage.

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